FACTORS AFFECTING THE DECISION-MAKING ON AGRICULTURAL CAREERS SELECTION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF KASETSART UNIVERSITY, KAMPHAENG SAEN CAMPUS

Abstract

This research aimed to study: 1) career selection in agriculture; 2) opinions on factors of career selection in agriculture; and 3) factprs affectomg decision to select agriculture careers of graduate students of Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus. The population was 6,321 graduate students of Kasetsart University, Kamphaeng Saen Campus enrolling in the second semester of the academic year 2019. Multi-stage sampling method was used to select the sample of 421 students. The research instrument was a questionnaire. Statistics used for data analysis were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, correlation coefficient, and logistic regression analysis. 

The research findings were as follows: 1) 48.93% of students decided to select careers in agriculture while 51.07% of students decided not to select careers in agriculture. 2) Overall opinion on factors of decision to select careers in agriculture was at a moderate level. When considering each aspect, two aspects with the high level were opportunity for progress and learning and self-development opportunities. In addition, four aspects with the moderate level were job security, job or occupation characteristic, remuneration and welfare, and organizational reputation, respectively. 3) The factors affecting the decision to select careers in agriculture are learning and self-development opportunities and job or occupation characteristic, with the efficient value of logistic regression 1.565 and 0.990 respectively. The probability of agricultural careers selection based on the odds ratio showed that learning and self-development opportunities increased by one unit; the opportunity for students’ decision to select careers in agricultural increased by 4.784 units while job or occupation characteristic had increase the opportunity by 2.692 units.